#paranormal casefile

Paranormal Casefile

Amityville Case (1975)

Controversial and sensational haunting of a house in Amityville, Long Island, New York, in the 1970s. The case has been the subject of numerous investigations, intense publicity, claims and counterclaims, lawsuits, books, and films. It has been upheld and debunked, with no resolution. It is best known as "The Amityville Horror," a term that is now a registered trademark.

Background

The house at 112 Ocean Street was the scene of a grisly multiple murder on November 13, 1974. Six members of the DeFeo family—parents, two sons, and two daughters—were found shot to death with a 35-caliber rifle. Their estimated time of death was three A.M. A third son, 23-year-old Ronald "Butch" DeFeo, was charged with the murders. DeFeo pled insanity, based on his history of drug abuse, but he was convicted of six counts of second degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

The DeFeo house sat empty until December 1975, when newlyweds George and Kathy Lutz decided to purchase it.

They were informed of the murders by a real estate agent, but the house was a bargain. The couple and Kathy's three children by a previous marriage—Daniel, nine, Christopher, seven, and Melissa, five—moved into the house on December 18. They were able to stay only 28 days.

At the insistence of a friend, the Lutzes sought to have the housed blessed and were put in contact with Father Ralph J. Pecoraro (for a long time identified by the pseudonym Father Mancuso). When Pecoraro performed the blessing, he heard a deep male voice ordering him to "Get out." He told the Lutzes to avoid a room on the second floor—the former bedroom of the murdered DeFeo sons.

The Lutzes, according to their account, were immediately subjected to horrible phenomena. Voices told them to "get out"; there were swarms of flies in the cold of winter; Kathy had nightmares about the murders; the apparition of a "demon boy" who could shape-shift into a demonic pig was seen; green slime oozed from walls; a crucifix hanging on a wall was turned upside down; Kathy's face transfigured before George into a horrid hag; mysterious noises sounded in the middle of the night; the apparition of a little girl became Melissa's playmate; unseen presences embraced Kathy; cloven hoofprints appeared in the snow outside the house; locks and doors were damaged; and so on. Their behavior and mood deteriorated. The children couldn't attend school, and George was unable to work.

The Lutzes tried to bless the house with prayer themselves, but their efforts had no effect. Finally, they were subjected to events that terrified them so badly, they knew they had to get out. The Lutzes never disclosed all the things that happened on their last terror-filled night, but among the phenomena were bangings and a menacing hooded apparition that appeared on the stairs and pointed at George. They left the house in a rush on January 14, 1976, and went to the home of Kathy's mother in Deer Park, New York. They left most of their belongings behind and sent a mover to collect them later.

Investigations

Demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren were contacted and met with the Lutzes and Father Pecoraro. They visited the house after it was vacated. On their first visit, they brought with them a television anchorman, a professor from Duke University, and the president of the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR). The Warrens determined that the phenomena fit the characteristics of a demonic possession, which the Lutzes, who knew nothing of demonology, could not have fabricated. The Warrens took numerous photographs, including one purporting to show the face of the demon boy peering out from a bedroom. Hans Holzer was another investigator.

Controversy

The Lutzes soon wondered if something wrong about the house itself might have influenced DeFeo to commit the murders. They contacted William Weber, DeFeo's attorney. Weber was already weighing book offers about the DeFeo murders, and he found the angle of a malevolent haunting to be appealing. For several hours, they discussed ideas for such a book.

The Lutzes decided not to work with Weber however. They especially did not like Weber's intention to give a share of profits to DeFeo. The Lutzes moved to San Diego, California, where they struck a deal with author Jay Anson. Anson's nonfiction account, The Amityville Horror, was published in 1977. He never visited the house, but based the book on 45 hours of taped interviews that the Lutzes provided him. The book was adapted to film in 1979.

The case became a media sensation. Anson's account was immediately controversial, and skeptics began claiming the entire haunting was a hoax. Discrepancies in Anson's story—which may have been embellished for the purposes of dramatization—were highlighted. For example, there was no snow in Amityville on the day that the cloven hoofprints were supposed to have been seen. The assertion that part of the problem was due to the house's location on a place where Shinnecock Indians had once abandoned mentally ill and dying people was refuted by Native Americans. Father Pecoraro said he did not go to the house to bless it; the Lutzes always asserted that he did. Many more points of controversy surfaced. Even the Warrens and George Lutz acknowledged that Anson's book was not entirely accurate, but attributed it to Anson’s lack of familiarity with demonology and not due to any deliberate acts on the part of George Lutz. Among the skeptics were Jerry Solfvin of the Psychical Resench Foundation, Karlis Osis and Alex Tanous of the ASPR, all of whom visited the house but conducted no investigations, opining that the phenomena were subjective, not paranormal.

For years, the case was repeatedly debunked, validated, debunked, and validated. One later skeptic was Stephen Kaplan, a self-styled vampirologist of Long Island, who wrote a book, The Amityville Conspiracy, basing his claims of hoax on inaccuracies in Anson's book. He declined to produce evidence that he stated he had in his possession. He later apologized publicly to the Warrens, admitting that he had fabricated his hoax story. Kaplan died of a heart attack shortly after publication of his book.

Lawsuits

In 1977, the Lutzes filed a lawsuit against Weber and Paul Hofman, a writer working on the story; Bernard Burton and Frederick Mars, two clairvoyants who had been to the house; and Good Housekeeping, The New York Sunday News, and the Hearst Corporation, which had published articles on the haunting. The Lutzes sought $5.4 million in damages for invasion of privacy, misappropriation of names for trade purposes, and mental distress. Weber, Hoffman, and Burton countersued for $2 million, alleging fraud and breach of contract. The Lutzes' claims against the news organizations were dropped.

The Lutzes' case went to trial in district court in Brooklyn, New York, in 1979. The judge dismissed their suit, saying that from testimony, "It appears to me that to a large extent the book is a work of fiction, relying in a large part upon the suggestions of Mr. Weber."

The couple who purchased the house from the Lutzes said nothing unusual happened to them. However, they were so annoyed by the publicity and steady stream of curiosity seekers that they sued Anson, the Lutzes, and publisher Prentice Hall for $1.1 million. They received a settlement for an unspecified smaller amount. Father Pecoraro sued the Lutzes and Prentice Hall for invasion of privacy and distortion of his involvement in the case. He received an out-of-court settlement.

Aftermath

The Lutzes stuck to their story for the rest of their lives. Their supporters have pointed out that Anson's discrepancies do not discredit what happened at the house. The Lutzes divorced in the 1980s. Kathy died of emphysema on August 17, 2004. George, who had moved to Las Vegas, died on May 8, 2006, of heart disease.

Anson died of a heart attack in 1980. He had shared copyright for the book with the Lutzes, but retained sole rights to the film. Father Pecoraro is no longer living.

The Amityville case has gone on to become a mini-industry, spawning books, films, articles, and websites, as well as endless debate.

An outbreak of poltergeist phenomena that occurred in the 1950s in Chilliwack, British Columbia, probably due to the human agency of a teenaged girl. The girl's aunt believed that racial prejudices were the cause. The residents of Chilliwack called whatever was causing the disturbances "The Thing."

Anna Duryba

Anna Duryba was a Ukrainian immigrant who moved to Chilliwack from Saskatchewan in 1933. She worked as a domestic, saving her money until she could buy a 10-acre chicken ranch a mile out of town. She lived there in a four-room cottage. In October 1951, her 14-year-old niece, Kathleen, came to live with her. Several months later, poltergeist disturbances began. Objects flew about and damaged windows, and loud, violent hammering sounded throughout the cottage, as though someone were using a jackhammer. The noises seemed to emanate from the northeast corner of the house. No damage was ever visible, despite the terrible pounding sound.

Anna thought a local trickster was the cause, but soon felt that someone was deliberately trying to drive her off her property: Durybas brother, Alex, who lived nearby, believed that someone local who did not like Ukrainians was trying to force his sister out. On at least one occasion, a sheriff's deputy was called to investigate.

The deputy, A. J. Edwards, agreed with Alex, whereupon Alex armed himself with a shotgun and stationed himself at his sister's cottage. When the disturbances commenced, Alex fired off shots and shouted threats. Neighbors armed with shotguns stood watch as well.

The disturbances not only continued, but got worse. The hammering and banging occurred up to 30 times a night, even when the house was floodlit and under observance by neighbors, and also during the day. The noise raced about the cottage. Anna would run outside and try to catch the perpetrator, always to no avail.

Even more maddening, "The Thing" seemed to react to people. Once when the hammering began, Anna ran to a window and yelled, "Go ahead, do it again, you silly fool." The hammering moved to beneath the window. No one was outside. When Alex challenged "The Thing," it answered by shaking the cottage and windows.

Locals offered explanations. Maybe the noises were being caused by exceptionally dry ground beneath the cottage. Another explanation proposed was that an electrical problem of some sort was to blame.

Anna refused to leave. But niece Kathleen, whose health was poor and who suffered from "nerves," was showing strain. The Reverend W. T. Clarke recognized that Kathleen might be the focal point and persuaded Anna to send her away to Vancouver for a while. During the 10 days the girl was gone, the poltergeist disturbances stopped. They resumed upon her return.

Others wanted to investigate the link between the girl and the phenomena, but Anna and Alex refused to cooperate—or even to deal with anyone on the matter anymore. Their explanation was that everything was mysteriously caused by racial prejudice.

One person who was able to witness the disturbances before the Durybas ceased communicating was psychical researcher R. S. Lambert. He wrote that he heard the sounds on four occasions: rapid, violent rapping on the outer wall near a window, between 8 P.M. and midnight. The noises sounded like a pneumatic hammer and lasted for one to two minutes at a time. Anna and Kathleen were present on three of those occasions; Kathleen was asleep in her bedroom on the fourth. However, Lambert agreed with the Durybas that a hostile person was trying to drive Anna and Kathleen out.

Paranormal Casefile

The Valencia (1906)

Macabre phantom ship that haunts the sea off the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

The Valencia was a steamship owned by the American Steamship Line. On January 20, 1906, it left San Francisco harbor, bound for Seattle via Victoria, B.C. Aboard were 94 passengers and 60 crew. A few minutes before midnight on January 22, tragedy struck when the ship hit a submerged reef off Pachena Bay on Vancouver Island. A swift sinking would have been merciful to the terrified people onboard, but those on the Valencia died an agonizing death. It became wedged between rocks, which, combined with high seas, prevented rescue ships from reaching the vessel. Rescuers watched helplessly as the pounding sea slowly tore the Valencia to pieces.

Passengers struggled to avoid their fate. For most of them, their valiant struggles were futile. One by one, they slipped into the sea and drowned. A few survivors managed to climb the rigging, but many of them, too, were claimed by the waves. Some held on for two days before drowning. In the end, only 37 of the 154 persons were rescued.

Ghostly activity appeared immediately. The City of Topeka picked up survivors and took them to Seattle. En route it met an outward-bound ship and slowed to relay the news of the wreck. Very little wind was present and the black smoke from the City of Topeka's stacks settled over the water in a thick cloud. To the horror of everyone on board, a phantom ship emerged out of the smoke—the shape of the Valencia was recognizable.

For years, seamen passing by the spot where the Valencia met its end saw a wrecked phantom ship with the spectral forms of people clinging to the rigging. Fishermen reported seeing ghostly lifeboats moving across the water, manned by skeletons.

An odd twist to the haunting was a reported discovery made by Indians who were exploring caves near Pachena Bay. According to lore, they found a lifeboat containing eight skeletons floating inside a large cave. A boulder partially blocked the cave entrance, indicating that the boat would have had to have been lifted into the cave. How and why it got there remains a mystery. The boat and skeletons were left there.

Dieppe Raid Case - 1951

Reports of the hearing of ghostly sounds of a bloody World War Il air and sea battle fought near Dieppe, France. The case, documented and examined by psychical researchers, attained fame in the 1950s. It is considered to be an example of paranormal collective auditory hallucinations.

The case was reported by two Englishwomen on holiday at Puys, near Dieppe, in late July and early August 1951. The women, identified pseudonymously in reports as Dorothy Norton and her sister-in-law Agnes Norton, stayed in a house that during World War II had been occupied by German soldiers. Dorothy Norton was accompanied by her two children and a nurse.

On the morning of August 4, at about 4:20, the women were awakened by loud noises that started suddenly and at first sounded like a storm arising at sea. The sounds ebbed and flowed, and then they could distinctly hear sounds of gunfire, shellfire, divebombers, and men shouting and crying out. The women got up and went out on their balcony, where they could not actually see the sea, but they detected nothing that could account for the noises. Meanwhile, the noises came in from the direction of the sea, loud and intense, and still seemed like gunfire, divebombing and voices shouting. The roaring abruptly stopped at 4:50 A.M. and resumed at about 5:07 A.M. The noise became so intense that the Norton women were amazed that other occupants of the house were not awakened. As the sky grew light, they heard a rifle shot on the beach below. The noise became more distinct as the sound of divebombing planes that came in waves. It stopped abruply at 5:40 A.M. The noise resumed at 5:50 A.M., not as loud, but stil sounding distinctly like planes. The noise died away at 6 A.M. and resumed at 6.20 A.M., much fainter. The women heard nothing at all after 6:55 A.M.

Both women knew that a battle had taken place in the vicinity during the war, but neither knew the details. They consulted a French guidebook and, during the experience, sat and read the account of the battle. They concluded they might have heard ghostly sounds of the real battle, and agreed to write independent versions of their experience. With a small discrepancy in time (probably due to a difference in watches), their reports matched. Later, they asked several persons if they, too, had been disturbed during the night, but received negative answers.

The sounds bore a remarkable correspondence to the fierce battle that took place in the Dieppe environs on August 19, 1942, at precisely the times experienced by the Nortons. The Royal Regiment of Canada launched a predawn assault on German forces from Puys, about 1.5 miles east of Dieppe, to Berneval, about 5 miles east, to Purville, about 2.5 miles west of Dieppe and to Varengeville about 3 miles further west. Flank landings were scheduled to make surprise arrivals at 4:50 A.M. to destroy coastal batteries. At about 3:47, the Canadians encountered a small German convoy off the coast, and the two forces exchanged fire until after 4 A.M. The Canadians arrived at Dieppe a few minutes late, at 5:07. At 5:12 A.M., destroyers started to bombard Dieppe with shells, and at 5:15 Hurricane planes attacked, at Puys as well as Dieppe. At 5:20 A.M., main landings at Dieppe were made, covered by a bombardment of shells from destroyers and by heavy air attack. A second wave went ashore at about 5:45 A.M. At about 5:50 A.M., new air fighters from England arrived, and German planes were in the sky as well.

The Germans, who were able to man their beach defenses, waited until the landing craft nearly touched shore before opening heavy fire with rifles, machine guns and howitzers. The Canadians were trapped by a high sea-wall. Within two or three hours, the Royal Regiment of Canada was nearly destroyed. Thirty-four officers and 727 men were killed. Two officers and 65 men, half of whom were wounded, were rescued and taken away, and another 16 officers and 264 men were captured by the Germans.

A comparison of the Nortons' experience with the phases of the Dieppe raid showed consistencies between times and the changes in the noises they heard, with a few exceptions. The information in the French guidebook was not specific enough for them to have subconsciously matched their description to the real event after reading about it.

The Nortons, interviewed by psychical researchers G.W. Lambert and Kathleen Gray, came across as well balanced individuals who displayed no tendency to embellish their accounts, and no desire to prove they had had a paranormal experience. Dorothy Norton said she had been avakened by similar, but fainter, noises on the morning of July 30, but had not mentioned the experience to Agnes (who had not heard the noises) because she had not wanted to spoil the holiday with something mysterious.

Skeptics proposed other explanations for the experience, such as surf sounds, noise from commercial airplanes flying a nearby route across the English Channel, or noise from a dredger. Agnes Norton had served in the women's Royal Naval Service during the war, however, and she probably would have been able to distinguish the sounds of the sea and of a single commercial aircraft, had those been the natural sources. The dredger was not in operation at the times corresponding to the Nortons' experience.

Both women were familiar with the Versailles Haunting, a similar case in which two Englishwomen on holiday in France felt they had paranormal experiences in encountering the ghostly past. Skeptics also suggested that this familiarity may have subconsciously primed the Nortons to have their own experience. The possibility is remote, since the Norton women were not previously acquainted with the details of the Dieppe case.

The Miami Poltergeist - 1966/67

First poltergeist case in which scientifically controlled experiments were conducted to determine the nature of the activity. A human focal point was identified.

The Miami Poltergeist case began in late 1966 or early 1967, when an unusual number of objects in the warehouse of Tropican Arts, a wholesaler of novelty items, spilled and broke under mysterious circumstances. At first, carelessness on the part of shipping clerks was blamed. On January 14, 1967, the Miami police were called by the warehouse manager, Alvin Laubheim, who complained that a ghost was in his warehouse breaking things. The investigating oficer arrived and witnessed objects falling off shelves of their own accord.

After the case came to public awareness, parapsychologists, including Roll and J. Pratt, investigated. Almost immediately Roll suspected that a human focal point was responsible, and that the person was a 19-year-old shipping clerk named Julio (pictured above). The breakages and movements of objects always took place when Julio was in the vicinity, and the activity was most intense when Julio seemed to be irritated or upset. Julio’s proximity to the activity had led coworkers to accuse him of being the culprit, which he vehemently denied. He did confess, however, that the breakages made him happy. The researchers found no evidence that he was responsible for the incidents, or that any trickery was used to stage effects.

No objects moved when attempts were made to film activity. Also, activity in general decreased whenever Roll was on the scene, although he did manage to witness 13 of the 224 incidents that were documented.

Julio's father-in-law to be, Jose Diaz, a medium, was brought to the warehouse by management, and he claimed to see an alligator spirit that allegedly was responsible for the mischief. Diaz placed items about the warehouse to serve as diversionary "playthings" for the spirit, but the breakages continued.

Roll and Pratt examined all shelves to make sure that boxes and items were pushed as far back as possible to eliminate the possibility of vibrations or jarring causing them to fall naturally. To see if objects rose up in the air before falling, Roll placed notebooks as a barrier in front of rows of glasses on shelves. When broken glass was discovered and the notebooks stood undisturbed, it indicated that the glasses had risen up into the air before falling to the ground.

The case also enabled Roll to test his psi field theory, which holds that phenomena reduce with distance from the agent due to a weakening psi field, comparable to a magnetic field. Activity was reduced with distance from Julio; however, objects farthest away from him traveled the longest distances, while objects nearest him traveled the shortest distance. To explain this, Roll proposed that the psi field rotates in a circular motion around an agent similar to a vortex. This explanation has been widely contested by other parapsychologists.

Julio agreed to take a battery of personality and psychological tests. Results that might indicate unconscious psychokinesis at work included anger, rebellion, a sense of unworthiness, guilt, rejection, detachment, passivity and inaction, a feeling of being apart from the social expressing aggression. Julio acknowledged disliking his boss. It also was discovered that 10 days prior to the start of the phenomena at the warehouse, Julio had had some upsetting experiences at home, with his stepmother trying to get him to move out of the house. He suffered nightmares and had suicidal feelings.

On January 30, a break-in occurred at the warehouse and some items and petty cash were taken. Julio was suspected, and he later confessed. The owner and manager did not press charges. The police sergeant also said that Julio claimed he had caused the poltergeist activity with trickery using threads; the sergeant, however, never examined the warehouse, and Roll and Pratt doubted the claim. Several days later, Julio stole a ring from a jeweler for his fiancee.

He was convicted and sent to jail for six months. After his departure from the warehouse, phenomena ceased.

Upon Julio's release, Roll and others attempted to arrange financial support for him so that he could undergo laboratory research for extrasensory perrception (ESP) and PK. Julio declined, and pursued marriage and a tumultuous job history. He eventually underwent tests, and showed significant results for PK but not for ESP. He indicated an ability to control his PK. Later, his father-in-law attempted to help him improve his control of PK in mediumistic sittings.

The Miami case is evidence in support of the theory that at least some cases of poltergeist outbreaks are caused unwittingly by human agents, perhaps due to repressed emotions and hostilities.

Paranormal Casefile

Amherst Haunting (1878)

A classic case of a late 19th-century poltergeist in Amherst, Nova Scotia that was so mean-spirited that it directed its nasty activities not only toward its young victim, but to all other persons who tried to help her. Even the family cat did not go unscathed.

The troublesome spirit, which gave itself the name "Bob" when leaving written messages on walls, confounded observers with strange, frightening noises and happenings, and even started fires. The case began in 1878 and attracted the notice of the public; people often gathered at the house in such great numbers that the police had to be summoned.

The victims were the Teed family of Amherst, headed by Daniel Teed, a foreman in a shoe factory, and including his wife, Olive, and their two young sons; Olive's two sisters, Jennie, 22 years old, and Esther, 19 years old; Olive's brother, William; and Daniel's brother, John. They lived in a crowded two-story cottage.

The family's travails began one night when Esther jumped out of the bed she shared with Jennie and screamed that there was a mouse in it. Finding no such thing, the two went back to sleep. The next night, they heard rustling sounds in a bandbox which was rising and falling in the air. An examination by the frightened women revealed an empty box.

On the following night, the spirit turned ugly, setting the tone for its future activities. Esther, who had gone to bed feeling ill, suddenly awoke and declared that she was dying. Her cries alarmed family members, who rushed into her room, whereupon they were greeted with a hideous sight. Esther's short hair was almost standing on end, her face was blood-red and her eyes popping. Two family members proclaimed her mad, but their accusations turned to concern as Esther's body swelled to nearly double its normal size. Esther's pitiful cries of pain were accompanied by booming sounds of rolling thunder—although there was not a cloud to be seen in the sky.

Esther's swelling subsided, but four nights later when she and Jennie were once again asleep, their bedclothes were suddenly torn away and thrown into a heap in the corner of the room. Again, frightened family members rushed into the girls' room, saw a swollen Esther and heard the rolling thunder. Jennie replaced the bedclothes, only to have a pillow fly off the bed and strike John Teed in the face. John fled the room, but the others remained, sitting on the bedclothes to hold them fast while Esther fell back to sleep.

The next day the family called the local physician, Dr. Carritte, to check Esther. He became the poltergeist's next victim. While examining Esther, the bolster beneath her head rose up and violently hit him on the head before returning to its former spot. The astonished doctor took a few moments to restore his equilibrium and sat down in a chair. He heard a metallic scratching sound coming from the wall behind him. Turning to see its source, he saw written upon the wall, "Esther Cox! You are mine to kill." At the same time, the doctor heard peals of thunder and saw pieces of plaster fall from the ceiling and swirl around the room.

To the terrified Dr. Carritte's credit, he returned the next day to examine his patient. As he was bending over Esther, he was hit with a barrage of potatoes which sent him flying across the room. Nevertheless, the doctor continued his ministrations by giving Esther a sedative. She fell fitfully asleep; meanwhile, the doctor heard loud, pounding sounds coming from the ceiling.

The next day, Esther complained of feeling as though electricity were passing through her body. Dr. Carritte administered more sedatives in the evening. As he put her to bed, loud rapping sounded, as though someone were pounding on the roof of the house. Dr. Carritte went outside, where strong moonlight enabled him to see that no one was upon the roof. Yet, when he returned inside, the family said that while he had been out, it had sounded as though someone were pounding on the roof with a sledgehammer. The poundings repeated intermittently, but eventually they went on all day long and were heard by passersby. The noises were written up in the local Gazette newspaper and other papers throughout Canada.

About three weeks after Dr. Carritte's initial visit, Jennie stated that she thought the ghost could hear and see everything the family did. Immediately, three clear reports were heard in response. Further questions put to the spirit were answered with loud reports: one knock for a negative answer and three knocks for an affirmative one. The family began to converse with the unseen spirit.

Word had now begun to spread throughout the community about these happenings. The clergy became interested, but they attributed the phenomena to the newly commercialized electricity rather than to supernatural or diabolical agents. A well-known Baptist clergyman, Rev. Dr. Edwin Clay, began to visit regularly. Rev. Clay agreed with Dr. Carritte that Esther was not producing the noises herself. He opined that her nerves had received some sort of electric shock, thus turning her into a living battery. He believed that her body was emitting tiny flashes of lightning, and the noises were actually small claps of thunder. This theory proved to be popular, and Rev. Clay began to give numerous lectures on it, always defending Esther against any accusations of fraud. The publicity caused throngs of people to gather outside the Teed cottage daily.

Rev. Clay quit visiting Esther when she contracted diphtheria months later. When she recovered, she left the Teed home to stay temporarily with a married sister in New Brunswick. For the first time, peace and quiet descended on the cottage.

But when Esther returned home, so did the spirit, with an even greater desire for destruction and disruption. One night, Esther told Jennie that she could hear a voice saying that it would burn the house down. The voice also stated that it had once lived on earth, had died, and now was only a ghost.

The girls called in family members to relay the message, and while all were laughing at the preposterousness of such a thing happening, lighted matches began falling from the ceiling onto Esther’s bed. Communication with the spirit was then initiated, and when asked if it would really set the house afire, it answered in the affirmative. As apparent proof, one of Esther’s dresses, hanging on a nail on the wall, was rolled up by invisible hands, stuffied beneath the bed and lighted afire. Daniel Teed pulled the dress out and snuffed the fire before it could do serious damage.

"Bob" set Olive Teed's skirts on fire and allegedly set several small fires in different parts of the house, which again caused more fright than damage. During one fire emanating from a bucket of cedar shavings in the basement, Esther ran into the street screaming for help and neighbors came to her aid. The local fire department, however, suspected arson, perhaps by Esther. However, she was within view of Olive when the fire started and could not have been responsible.

Members of the public suggested that Esther should be flogged in order to beat the evil out of her. Instead Daniel Teed sent her to the house of a Mr. White for safety. But the spirit apparently was having too much fun and continued setting fires in her absence.

Around this time, Walter Hubbell, an actor in a strolling company based in Amherst, became interested in the case as a possible moneymaker. He decided to exhibit Esther on a platform in the hopes that the ghost would thrill the audience with strange activities. Unfortunately, the spirit wasn't interested in working on cue and irate spectators hissed and booed the couple off the stage, demanding the return of their money.

Esther returned to live in the Teed home, accompanied by the undaunted Hubbell, who moved into the house to learn more about the spirit. His efforts were rewarded by assaults upon him by his umbrella and by a large carving knife that flew briskly through the air in his direction. Being young and nimble, he was able to duck in time, only to see a huge armchair come marching across the room toward him.

Hoping to put an end to the family's torment, the local clergyman, Rev. R.A. Temple, held a meeting of prayer and exorcism in the house. When the reverend asked the spirit to speak, it responded with loud trumpet-playing. The reverend fled the house, but the spirit became enamored of its own playing and continued to blast on the instrument. The musical finale was accompanied by a display of lighted matches.

Mischief continued to plague other members of the household. George Cox, Esther’s brother, was humiliated when he was mysteriously undressed three times in public. One day Walter Hubbell observed that the cat was the only resident that had not been tormented. The cat instantly was levitated about five feet into the air and set down upon Esther’s shoulders. The terrified animal ran out of the house, where it remained for the rest of the day.

The fire-starting also continued. Hubbell, who in 1888 wrote his account of the case, "The Great Amherst Mystery," described his first encounter with the spirit's fire tricks:

“...l say, candidly, that until I had had that experience I never fully realized what an awful calamity it was to have an invisible monster, somewhere within the atmosphere, going from place to place about the house, gathering up old newspapers into a bundle and hiding it in the basket of soiled linen or in a closet, then go and steal matches out of the matchbox in the kitchen, or somebody's pocket, as he did out of mine; and after kinding a fire in the bundle, tell Esther that he had started a fire, but would not tell where; or perhaps not tell her at all, in which case the first intimation we would have was the smell of smoke pouring through the house, and then the most intense excitement, everybody running with buckets of water. I say it was the most truly awful calamity that could possibly befall any family, infidel or Christian, that could be conceived in the mind of man or ghost. And how much more terrible did it seem in this little cottage, where we were all strict members of the church, prayed, sang hymns, and read the Bible. Poor Mrs. Teed!”

Finally, the landlord of the Teed home, Mr. Bliss, distressed at the potential for damage to his cottage, requested that Esther leave his property. Reluctantly, the family agreed to let Esther go to the home of a Mr. Van Amburgh. The Teed home then once again returned to normal.

The hapless Esther was to be harassed by the spirit one last time. "Bob" followed her into a barn and set it afire. She was arrested for arson and sentenced to four months' imprisonment, but appeals from persons who knew her sad history led to her release. The story ended happily, however, as Esther ultimately married and was finally rid of the ghost.

Members of the Teed family were convinced that the events were indeed caused by the evil ghost of a man who had decided to torment Esther. Some of the local townsfolk believed Esther had perpetrated everything. Wrote Hubbell, "Dr. Nathan Tupper, who had never witnessed a single manifestation, suggested that if a strong rawhide whip were laid across Esther's bare shoulders by a powerful arm, the tricks of the girl would cease at once." Dr Carritte believed in the ghost, as did Hubbell. The case was never solved.

Paranormal Casefile

Wilmot Apparition (1863)

An apparition of the living, both collective and reciprocal, that occurred on board a steamship in 1863. The case has a number of unusual features that make it a classic in the history of psychical research.

S. R. Wilmot, a manufacturer who lived in Bridgeport, Connecticut, set sail from Liverpool, England, to New York on the steamer City of Limerick on October 3, 1863. His sister, Eliza, accompanied him. Wilmot shared a stern berth with an Englishman, William J. Tait.

On the second day out, a severe storm arose at sea, lasting for nine days. The ship sustained some damage. Wilmot experienced seasickness and remained in his berth for several days.

On the night following the eighth day of the storm, the winds and sea abated a little, and Wilmot was at last able to fall into a much-needed sleep. Toward morning, he dreamed he saw his wife come to the door of the stateroom, clad in her white nightdress. At the door, she noticed that Wilmot was not alone in the room, and hesitated. Then she entered, came to Wilmot's side, bent down and kissed and caressed him, and then quietly left.

When Wilmot awoke, he was startled to see Tait staring down at him from his upper berth, which was off to one side and not directly above Wilmot. "You're a pretty fellow to have a lady come and visit you in this way," said Tait. Wilmot had no idea what the man was talking about. Tait explained that he had been awake when he saw a woman in a white nightdress enter the stateroom and kiss and caress the sleeping Wilmot. His description exactly matched Wilmot's dream.

Tait later asked Wilmot's sister if she had been the one to steal up to the stateroom, but Eliza denied it. Wilmot then told her about his dream and how it matched what Tait had seen.

The incident seemed so bizarre to Wilmot that he questioned Tait about it repeatedly, and on three separate occasions Tait related the same account. When the ship reached New York on October 22, Tait and Wilmot went their separate ways and never saw each other again.

On October 23, Wilmot went by rail to Watertown, Connecticut, where his wife and children were staying with Mrs. Wilmot's parents. His wife immediately asked if Wilmot had received a visit from her on the night he had had the dream.

She then told him that the reports of storms at sea had caused her great worry about his safety at sea. She had been further stressed by the news that another ship, the Africa, had run aground in the same storm and had been forced to shore at St. John's, Newfoundland, with serious damage.

On the night that the storm began to abate, Mrs. Wilmot lay awake in bed for a long time thinking about her husband. At about four o'clock in the morning, it seemed to her that she actually went out to search for him. She crossed the stormy sea until she came to a long, black steamship. She went up the side, descended into the cabin, passed through to the stern and proceeded until she found Wilmot's stateroom. She described the room accurately to Wilmot, and said that when she came to the doorway, she saw a man in the upper berth intently watching her. For a moment she was frightened to go in. She decided to enter, and went to Wilmot's side, where she kissed and caressed him, and then went away.

When she awoke in the morning, Mrs. Wilmot told her mother about the experience, which seemed to have been a dream, yet was so vivid that Mrs. Wilmot could not shake the feeling that she had physically visited her husband aboard the ship.

The case was examined in 1889 and 1890 by members of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), which had been informed of details by a friend of Wilmot's. Richard Hodgson, Edmund Gurney and Eleanor Sidgwick took testimony from Wilmot, his wife and sister; Tait was deceased. The researchers considered the case a remarkable one, despite the fact that more than 20 years had elapsed between the incident and the recording of its details. Even allowing for inevitable lapses of memory and the lack of Tait's account, the case differed from other collective and reciprocal apparitions. The researchers considered various explanations; however, none of them is satisfactory.

Collective apparitions, in which an apparition is perceived by more than one person, are unusual. Even more unusual are reciprocal apparitions, in which the agent and percipient see each other, as did Mrs. Wilmot and Tait. The Wilmot case is further complicated by the fact that one of the percipients saw the apparition in a dream, and another saw the apparition in a waking state as though it had material reality. (Wilmot said that as a child he had experienced carvoyant dreams but nothing similar to this incident.) The agent, Mrs. Wilmot, felt she was present on the ship. but the experience had a dreamlike quality.

Gurney and Sidgwick thought the incident was most likely due to telepathy and Clairvoyance, Mrs. Wilmot’s intense anxiety and thoughts concerning her husband, and her desire to see him and comfort him, were communicated telepathically to Wilmot. Because he was sleeping at the time, they took the form of a dream. Sidgwick felt the dream strengthened the telepathic hypothesis. In addition, Mrs. Wilmot's desire to see her husband enabled her to see the stateroom clairvoyantly.

To explain the presence of the apparition seen by Tait, the researchers theorized that Tait in turn had received telepathic impressions from Wilmot, which took visual form.

Another possibility, which was dismissed by the researchers, was that an objective presence had appeared in the stateroom—a "phantasmogenetic efficacy," as they called it, located in space and within a range of Tait's senses. In other words, perhaps Mrs. Wilmot actually projected herself spontaneously out-of-body to appear on board the ship, and what Tait saw was her double.

From a modern perspective, the telepathy explanation seems cumbersome at best and does not adequately account for the apparition seen by Tait. An out-of-body projection seems more likely. However, modern researchers do not agree on what constitutes an out-of-body experience. The Wilmot case remains a puzzle.

Paranormal Casefile

Seaford Poltergeist (1958)

The first modern investigation by parapsychologists of poltergeist disturbances in a Seaford, Long Island household in 1958. The case might also aptly be called "the bottle-popping poltergeist," as it was characterized by numerous bottles inexplicably popping their tightened screw tops and spilling their contents.

As is typical of most poltergeist cases, the disturbances began without warning, lasted five weeks, and ceased without warning or reason. The case remains unsolved.

The disturbances afflicted the James Herrmann family, whose members included Mr. and Mrs. Herrmann and their 13-year-old daughter, Lucille, and 12-year-old son, Jimmy. A cousin of Mr. Herrmann, Marie Murtha, visited during some of the outbreaks.

The incidents began on February 6 and 7, 1958 with the mysterious opening and spilling of bottles in the house when the children were present by themselves. The family were devout Catholics, and Mrs. Herrmann placed bottles of holy water in the house. This had no effect; in fact, the incidents escalated.

On February 9, while the entire family was in the dining room at about 10:15 A.M., they suddenly heard distinct popping noises in different parts of the house. They discovered that in the master bedroom a bottle of holy water had once again opened and was spilling its contents, and a new bottle of toilet water had opened and likewise was spilling. In the bathroom, a bottle of shampoo and a bottle of medicine had lost their caps, fallen over and were spilling. In the kitchen, a bottle of starch was spilling, and is in the cellar, a can of paint thiner had lost its top and was spilling.

This was too much for the Herrmann family, and Mrs. Herrmann called the police. An officer arrived to investigate, and while he was in the house, more popping noises were heard. In the bathroom, the shampoo bottle, which had been righted and recapped, was open again and spilling. Nothing could be found to explain the incidents.

A newspaper report came to the attention of parapsychologists J. B. Rhine, William G. Roll, and Gaither Pratt. They obtained permission from the family to investigate. Pratt and Roll spent a total of 10 days off and on with the family and were present when more bottle-poppings occurred. In addition, household objects such as figurines flew about or were upset, sometimes breaking or incurring damage. The Hermanns were so distraught that on several occasions they left the house to stay with friends.They also contacted a bishop to ask for a rite of exorcism to be performed, but they were told that the rite was not used for this kind of disturbance (apparently the haunting did not appear to be demonic in nature).

During the five weeks, 67 individual disturbances occurred, of which 64 were disturbances of objects and three were unexplained thumping sounds. All disturbances were reported to the police. Of the 64 incidents of disturbances to objects, 40 involved the same 16 objects, each of which suffered two to four disturbances. Twenty-three of the 64 object incidents were bottle-poppings.

Some of the disturbances were heard but not witnessed, while others were witnessed. Perhaps most unusual were the overturning of two bottles in the bathroom, witnessed by Mr. Herrmann and Jimmy. One moved straight ahead and the other spun to the right at the same time. Both crashed into the sink. Pratt and Roll interviewed all members of the household and attempted to find natural explanations for the incidents. To determine whether some unknown pressure was causing the bottles to pop their tops, they purchased dry ice and placed it in containers with screw caps. However, the gases that built up escaped beneath the caps without forcing them off. They succeeded in exploding a bottle made of thin glass, but the cap remained screwed to the neck.

Pratt and Roll also investigated and eliminated the following possible causes: high-frequency radio waves, vibrations in the floor, electrical malfunctions, downdrafts from the chimney, changes in the level of underground water (the house has its own well), settling in the foundation of the house, airplane noise from the nearby airport and plumbing problems.

From the outset, Jimmy was suspected as the agent of the disturbances, for they seemed to happen only when he was home, and only when he was awake. Both Hermann and a police detective accused the boy of playing tricks in an effort to induce him to confess, but Jimmy steadfastly denied any role in the matter. Roll and Pratt concluded that fraud was unlikely given the logistics involved in producing the effects and the complete lack of evidence that any family members were accomplices.

The poltergeist disturbance ended on March 10 with the top-popping of a bleach bottle in the basement. Pratt and Roll were present in the house with family members, but no one was near or witnessed the actual incident. The bottle, only partially filled, had not spilled its contents. But the cap landed right-side up and left a wet spot on the floor.

The poltergeist was not to make another appearance, and soon after that Pratt and Roll departed. The Herrmanns apparently were not bothered again.

It is possible that Jimmy was an unwitting agent, causing what Roll and Pratt termed "recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis" (RSPK), the spontaneous and temporary disturbances of objects. Laboratory experiments have demonstrated that people can influence the movement of objects in motion, such as rolling dice. It is extremely difficult, however, for test subjects to move stationary objects, as was the case with the Seaford Poltergeist.

The Seaford case involved no effort at communication of any sort, as is sometimes the case involving poltergeists that seem to be discarnate agents.